I thought this was worth mentioning again, especially since it is mentioned in an article regarding the recent attack on Replicunts.
http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/06/14/he...president/
Quote:It’s true that the Second Amendment guaranteed the right to “keep and bear Arms,” namely for the purpose of maintaining a “well regulated Militia.” The word “militia,” however, held very different meaning in the 18th Century than today. Due to financial constraints and experiences with European soldiers oppressing citizenry, George Washington and his fellow Founders believed that the military should be disbanded in times of peace, and the citizens’ militias would remain intact for purposes of defense — not to overthrow the government.
The Declaration of Independence does assert that right, saying:
“…it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish [the government], and to institute new Government” and “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
They believed so strongly in this right that they fought a war 240 years ago so that they could create a government where their fellow countrymen and women would have it guaranteed and would never again be forced to resort to violence to cast off the yoke of oppression. They instituted a system of peaceful overthrow, which they called elections.
It is the misguided conflation of these two rights that has conservatives defending the Second Amendment with logic that both fails to line up with our Founders intent and can be used to justify acts of violence against public officials.
http://occupydemocrats.com/2017/06/14/he...president/
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
~ Erin Hunter